Yes That's His Name, Don't Forget It

Has anyone ever told you that you can’t do something because of the color of your skin? Or because of the origin of your name. The most common one I’ve faced is “ you can’t rap bro, you’re too white” as if my abilities had some type of correlation with the color of my skin, bro. That’s similar to what former NBA player Kenyon Martin tweeted out at current player Jeremy Lin. Lin is most famous for his famous rise to NBA stardom termed as ‘Linsanity’, but most recently his hairstyles have been catching the attention of fans. His latest style is dreadlocks. Martin’s words were “We get it you wanna be black, but the last name is Lin.” Where he essentially critiqued Lin’s style as an attempt to be of another race.

Lin’s response was intriguing and articulate. Instead of firing back with a counter criticism of Martin, he described how his hair was not simply a style, but even more so a symbol. Lin said “ at the end of the day, I appreciate that I have dreads, and that you have Chinese tattoos, because I think it's a sign of respect.” In Lin’s perspective, this emulation of culture serves as an appreciation for its style and heritage. Lin also acknowledged Martin;s right to hold whatever opinions he desired, and later described spreading love and being gracious as his job.

This interaction is largely representative of racial classifications and diversity in contemporary American society. To many, there are strict and rigid divisions between people, and our heritage largely defines us as people and furthermore defines how we should act. However, this action of assimilating to a different style and culture is proof that race is not some biological constructs that determines how people will act and behave, but race is a cultural and social phenomenon that is largely imagined. One of the coolest things about living in the United States is that our interactions are divers, and we are a melting pot of cultures. Jeremy Lin has shown the positive utilizations of living in such a culture by seeking out and respecting a culture we wouldn't typically associate him with.

The color of our skin is not an indicator of our individuality. Instead of creating this rigid division between people I believe we should embrace and explore our differences, so that we can improve and diversify our society.

Photo courtesy of Mass Appeal

Head to Head Contact

We wouldn't be much without our brains. In fact, it is arguably the very organ that distinguishes us as humans. The brain controls and coordinates action and reaction, as well as rationality and emotion. Without our brains we are empty shells of ourselves, brains our undoubtedly our most precious body part. So, as the intelligent humans that we are, we created a sport where we directly put our most valuable organ at risk!

Football is by far the most popular sport in the United States, and of course the very nature of the game is violence and aggression. It's hard to imagine that originally this game was played without any helmets at all! Recently however, the NFL has come under fire for its ignorance of head injuries in their league. Many former players have come forward in recent years and spoken of permanent brain injuries they accumulated during their careers as players. In the past there was next to no head injury prevention, and no concussion screening on players. Of course with developing technology it has been easier to diagnose and treat the head injuries of players, but still there are limitations.

In the movie Concussion, the NFL is portrayed as the bad guy, in a way that they actively seek to blur the research being done on CTE, a serious digenerative disease caused by repetitive brain trauma. In the movie they obviously don’t want the truth to come out because that would hurt their brand. This isn’t so far from the truth in reality. The league claims they support independent research on the issue, but the continue to trivialize the problem that is CTE. The repetitive nature of clashing heads in the sport of football is of increased concern and debate recently, but the evidence clearly supports that the sport has directly caused this type of traumatic injury.

Photo courtesy of Huffington Post 

In the past the league has actively denied the effects football has had on brain injuries, but recent studies by Boston University have clearly put the issue in the spotlight. Out of a study of 91 former professional players, 87 tested positive for CTE. Similarly, two players have committed suicide in the past ten years, and their brains were donated to attributed universities that did extensive research on them. Both brains held traces of brain trauma that can be linked back to their history in the NFL. This problem has been proven, and put in the spotlight in the past decade. Things have improved, and rules have changed to better protect the players. However, the full impact of these findings have yet to be felt.

A handful of influential players have retired early, before living up to their Hall of Fame hype. Furthermore, parents are thinking twice about letting their children play the sport of football. Why put your child at risk of injury, when football incentive isn’t even close to some of the highest paying sports in the country. A youthful shift can be seen toward the sports of basketball, baseball, and soccer where your risk of brain injury is much less than "America's sport", football. Should we encourage our youth to play a dangerous sport like football, despite the clear findings linked with it?

Unity Breeds Solution

Most recently in the world of sports, protest across the NFL have been expanding to multiple teams, even to other sports outside the NFL. Just a week ago the very first MLB player kneeled for the National Anthem signifying his support of the protests that originated in the NFL. Why have these protest suddenly been taken up by a more broader base of players?

Recently divisive comments from the leader of our country, as well as increased incidents of racial discrimination and police brutality, have inspired athletes from different backgrounds to make a stance. This movement originally stemmed from the protests of Colin Kaepernick, but it has really been revitalized most recently. Michael Bennett is a defensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks, and he recently was held at gunpoint in a Las Vegas night club. This along with president Trump’s comments at an Alabama rally really resonated with athletes across the nation. Trump essentially said that any NFL player who demonstrated their right to free speech was a “Son of a B**** that should be fired”. Trump’s failure to recognize that these players are humans just like of the rest of the citizens that elected him, dehumanizes the players.

Uniformity sprouted up across the NFL, and many of the NFL owners, who had been criticized for not backing players enough on their stance, spoke out against the divisive comments the President made. This doesn’t mean they support the player’s protest but for many it was a step in the right direction, toward a symbol of racial unity in the NFL. Many NFL owners even showed up on the field before the games to lock arms with players in a showing of unity. Among these showings was the Dallas Cowboys, where perhaps the most influential NFL owner, Jerry Jones, locked arms with players on the field for an apparent symbol of harmony. However, his most recent comments have people reverting back to debate and division. He has said he will sit any player who decides to kneel for the national anthem again, essentially refusing his players the right to free expression. Just as the NFL was looking to become a symbol of unity with protests showing a unified desire to improve social and racial disparity in the US, an owner makes a statement like this.

Now the Cowboys have been deemed “America’s Team” since the team’s creation, and for America’s team to stand for something like this is troubling message that we are sending nationally and internationally.

However, other teams have been making strides to fix the issues at hand. 4 NFL teams, Seahawks namely one of them, have held team meetings to discuss what social movements are important to players. Subsequently, the Seahawks have donated 1 million dollars to different organization promoting racial and social justice. This is the type of action peaceful protest can promote, if we continue to unite instead of divide with our speech and our action, we can get a lot accomplished.

Photo courtesy of ESPN